Josh, you're a family friend, someone who I've done favors for, someone who responds to your many texts, someone who has spent time staying at my family's house -- yes, you don't try to steal a card from me without telling me that just a few days earlier the card sold for 300% more than my old listing price in an eBay auction. When you asked me to be on your podcast, I didn't hesitate to say yes, even though it took time out of my weekend, a rare time I have any time off. When you text me multiple times a week, I always respond. When you asked me to go to dinner with you and your father in Cleveland this summer, I said yes. As I told you, and you seemed to agree in texts and on the phone, the proper way to handle this would have been to tell me about the recent sale and then ask me if you could buy the card from me. I would have been happy with your honesty and given it to you at a discount -- just not the now arcane price that I had originally listed it for.
Instead, you claimed that because you're a "hustler" you simply didn't consider my feelings or our relationship: you wanted the card as it was really cheap and you wanted to trade up so that you could get your long-coveted 1952 Mantle. Of course, you didn't tell me this at the time you asked to buy it; instead you claimed that you wanted the card for your personal collection. Had you told me you were looking to make a big score on a flip, I would have quickly figured out that the card was badly mispriced and checked VCP. Because you're a kid I've looked out for like a son in this hobby, I didn't bother checking VCP when you said you wanted the card. I just presumed you'd never screw me over money.
Afterward, you asked me if it would be ok for you to sell the card. I thought that was odd because you had just told me how much you loved the card for your personal collection but now you want to sell it? I told you it was ok, but I also felt it was sleazy to some degree, but this is how the hobby is. People sometimes beg you for your card at a cheap price and explain they've wanted the card forever when in reality they just want a cheaper price and are willing to lie to get it.
Then I saw that you listed the card for sale (without my having even mailed it out yet) for 13K. And I received some more messages asking if the card was still available. At this point, I figured it out and checked VCP: and saw the Probstein sale for 12.7K just five days earlier. I was shocked that you hadn't told me about this before asking to buy the card. And I called you on it instantly. I didn't hide behind a keyboard, I asked you to call me and you did. And I lit into you for the incredibly scummy, sleazy, selfish thing you had done to a friend. You apologized profusely and the next day wanted to speak again, telling me you hadn't slept the night before. You also lied to me and said that you had assumed I had seen the 12.7K sale before selling you the card for 3.2K. As I repeatedly said to you, "how can you say that I knew the card just sold for 12.7K and then let it go for 3.2K?" After maintaining this lie for a while, you finally gave in and admitted that you knew I hadn't seen the recent Probstein sale, which is why I sold it to you for so cheap.
I told you I'd let you have the card for 3.2K but with that scummy move, I'd tell anyone and everyone what you did. As I told you, this isn't a baseball card life lesson, it's a life lesson period: don't take advantage of your friends. I then heard from a few people in the hobby who you told the story to and not one of them was told by you that the reason you wanted the card was due to the much higher Probstein sale compared to my much lower price. To each of these people you simply said I had a card for sale and had reneged on it. I told you, and I was right, that no respected person in the hobby would have done to me what you did to me. That I wouldn't do such a thing to a stranger on Net 54 as we're all part of the same small community and we should look out for each other. And I certainly would never do it to someone I considered a mentor, and a friend of my family.
I considered this ended only to find you talking about it out here. I then responded. I've received messages from 9 people since then telling me that you have questionable ethics in the hobby, that you were kicked out of one Facebook group due to your hobby practices and that you can't be trusted. I was then more disappointed in myself that I hadn't seen any of that in you when you were pretending to be my friend. Then you have the balls to get so low to attack my career, because I dare to defend people accused of crimes, as if somehow that makes me a criminal and not someone who provides people their constitutional right to a defense. You're pathetic and dishonest and a disappointment. I hope this was all worth it to you.
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